


Lady Thor

by agentsimmons



Series: Average. Ordinary. Everyday. [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Parents, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Family, Family Fluff, Gay Bruce Banner, Gay Tony Stark, Gen, Gender Identity, Kid Fic, M/M, Parent Bruce Banner, Parent Tony Stark, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Science Husbands, Siblings, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 13:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11624718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentsimmons/pseuds/agentsimmons
Summary: When the second youngest Banner-Stark kid gets an early birthday gift from Pepper, it leads to an important conversation the two fathers have been anticipating.





	Lady Thor

"He's going to love it, Pepper," Bruce said, eyeing the early birthday gift she had brought over for Jake. "You didn't have to, but thank you."

"Of course I did," Pepper countered in a scandalized tone, looking over at them from the armchair where she sat with Peter on her knee. "Last time Jen watched the kids for you, I joined them for lunch and then we did a little window shopping in The Grove—"

"Did you now?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," she answered, not rising to the bait or else not recognizing it, "and Jake practically begged to go in. Poor thing asked if they would let him go in and look at the dolls even though he looked like a boy that day."

"You know," Tony considered as they waited for Jake to join them, "maybe we should consider taking him there for his fifth birthday." He looked at Bruce beside him on the couch.

Bruce nodded. "They have a café." Then he frowned. "But, I don't know, I hate to say Jake might have room for concern. We'll have to do some research." He sighed and put the gift back into the gift bag Pepper had brought it in. "I want him to be able to do what he wants no matter what others will think, but…"

Tony placed a hand on his husband's shoulder. "I know what you mean, Bruce. I want to shield him for as long as possible too. Especially with kindergarten starting soon."

Tony bit his lip. It was a miracle preschool had gone as smoothly as it had. There had been at least one incident where a new kid had asked him why he wanted to look like a girl and Jake had gotten upset about it.

"The tabloids are bad enough," Pepper remarked in disgruntled agreement.

"I'd rather not think about that right now," Bruce said, shaking his head, "but they'd probably have a field day with his having an American Girl party."

"I’m having an American Girl party!?"

They all three turned their heads to see Jake standing there with wide eyes. He was wearing his beloved Lady Thor costume again and it was clearly in need of a wash soon, Tony noted before looking at Bruce with a small grimace.

Bruce chuckled. "Well, there goes the surprise," he said. "But, if you want to, yeah," he said with a nod. Jake rushed over and threw his arms around Bruce and Tony's heart swelled as he watched the scene.

Tony then chimed in with a, "Hey. No hugs for me?" He pouted when Jake looked at him. "It was my idea too."

"It was your idea period," Bruce said, giving him credit albeit with a snort.

Jake quickly hugged him and said, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"Ah, that's better," Tony teased. "But you should probably also save some of those thank you's for Aunt Pepper."

Jake pulled back quickly and looked at the woman. "J.A.R.V.I.S. says," he paused, taking in a gulp of breath having used it all up in his excitement apparently, "says you brought me a gift."

Pepper smiled. "I did. I'm going to be in Washington working hard so your dads can be here for your birthday which means I'm going to miss it."

"Way to throw us under the bus and make yourself a hero all in one go, Pep," Tony remarked with an indignant scoff.

"No wonder you and Jen ended up getting along so well," Bruce added, glancing at Tony so that he could see the impish gleam in his eyes.

"Haha," Pepper said flatly. "I'll be sure to tell her what her cousin says about her when she's not around to defend herself." She then smiled at Jake and said, "Your birthday gift is in that bag. Since I won't be at your party, I wanted you to have it before I go."

Jake turned his wide eyes to the bag and then back to Pepper and then towards Tony and Bruce.

"Well, go ahead and open it, Thor," Tony said with a laugh and upon confirmation that he was allowed to, Jake wasted no more time.

Jake pulled out the box, his eyes growing impossibly larger at the sight of the American Girl doll that was designed to closely resemble him.

"She looks like me!" Jake noticed immediately. He then pulled out something else Tony hadn't seen yet. It was another outfit only instead of a dress it was jeans and a t-shirt with a soccer ball on it. Jake gasped and smiled wide, causing Tony to smile and look at Bruce to see his reaction; it was much the same. "She can dress like a boy too!" He jumped up and down and then held both for his dads to see. "See! See!"

"We see," Bruce said. "How about I take her out of the box so we can get a better look?" Jake nodded eagerly and handed the box to him. He then hurried over to Pepper and she hugged him with one arm. "Thanks, Aunt Pepper."

"You're welcome, sweetheart. Happy early birthday."

"Here you go, Jake," Bruce said, holding out the doll and Jake hurried back over to take it. "It really does look like you," he remarked. Tony nodded.

Jake hugged the doll close then held it out and tilted his head. His face turned studious, forehead scrunching up and lips pouting.

"Something the matter there, Thor?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow and giving Bruce an uncertain look. Bruce shared it.

"Um… I was, um… just thinkin'…" He glanced up through his eyelashes shyly and then darted them back down to the doll as he stroked it's long, blonde hair. "I think she wants to be named Jane," he finally said.

Tony's eyebrows rose quickly and another glance at Bruce showed the same. They stared at each other for a long moment and then looked back at Jake.

"I'm going to go have some girl time with Natasha," Pepper said in a knowing tone. She stood to her feet and passed Peter over to Tony before leaving to give them some privacy.

"Jane is a very pretty name," Tony started, not sure how else to bridge the topic. He hitched a shoulder at Bruce to let him know how unsure he was. Bruce nodded in agreement. "It's very similar to your name which is also a very pretty name."

Jake finally looked back up at them. "It is?"

"I think so," Tony said. "But it's important what you think."

Jake scrunched his face again as if trying to understand that.

"Hey so," Bruce spoke slowly, keeping his voice gentle, "you know how your dad and I call you Thor or Diana or Maui when you're dressed up sometimes because you asked us to?"

Tony smiled when he understood where Bruce was going with the conversation and looked down at Peter as he thought, _Your daddy is a genius._

"Yeah."

"Alright." Bruce nodded. "Do you ever want to ask us to call you Jane?"

Jake's eyes widened and he swallowed visibly before looking down at his new doll.

"Because it's okay if you do," Tony chimed in. "We want you to be happy. If you want us to call you Jane we can do that."

"But I'm a boy like Steve and Clint," he mumbled, voice distraught. His face twisted into confusion again and he looked up. "I think. Can girls have…" He ducked his head and whispered, "thingies?"

Tony and Bruce shared a smile at his innocence.

"Yes," Bruce answered. "They can."

Jake's eyes widened and he looked up. "Oh." His surprise was short lived. He tilted his head in askance. "But a boy can't be a boy and a girl and a girl can't be both a girl and a boy, right?"

Tony chuckled. "It might be confusing, but sometimes they can." He and Bruce had done a lot of reading about it since they'd realized early on Jake might need a little extra room and support in figuring out how he identified. "You can feel like Jake some days and Jane on others," he tried to explain and that must have been the secret password because Jake – or Jane – gasped and it was clear a lightbulb had just gone off.

"Something tells me daddy just made a lot of sense, didn't he?" Bruce asked with a smile and was greeted with a nod and gaping expression. Bruce glanced at Tony with that gleam in his eyes that he'd long ago learned to read as _I love you_. He then looked back. "So, are you Jake or Jane today? Or still Thor?"

"Still Thor," was the very adamant answer, not even a breath of hesitation.

"Alright, Thor," Bruce said, "I have another question. _Do_ you want us to call you Jane sometimes?" The question was answered with another nod, a little more hesitant.

"And when we call you Jane," Tony interjected, "do you want us to call you our daughter? Or use words like 'she' and 'her'?"

"Is that allowed _too_!?"

"It is," Bruce answered. "Dad and I might forget sometimes so you'll have to be nice and tell us if we called you a boy instead. The same goes for Natasha, Steve and Clint. We'll make sure they call you Jane too when you tell us you're feeling like Jane. Okay?"

"Okay."

"One more thing," Bruce said in a deliberate tone and Tony raised an eyebrow, curious what else his husband might have to say on the subject now that some basics had been established. "If in the future you decide you just want to be Jake only again, you come talk to dad and me, okay? There's nothing to be worried about. If you decide you only want to be Jane, well, that's okay too. You might even decide you're neither of them. It's just very important you tell us how you're feeling because we love you and want to be there for you. Boy or girl or both or none, what matters to us is that you're happy and that you're a good person. I know that's a lot. Do you have any questions?"

"Um," Jake— Thor, Tony corrected himself, looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back, "oh! Do I have to wear my skirts to be Jane? Or… can I wear my boy clothes like… like when you still call me Jake even though I'm wearing a skirt?"

"What you wear has nothing to do with whether daddy or I call you by the name you tell us you want to be called, kiddo," Tony fielded that one. "Okay? You want to dress up like Maui and tell us to call you Diana anyway, we'll do it. You want to wear your tutu and go by Dr. Blake…" Tony paused and gave a considering look before reaching out and tickling Thor. "Well, you're gonna have to go to college and become a doctor first for that one," he teased, loving the sound of giggles he got in response– including those from Peter as he reflexively mirrored his older sibling's mirth. "The point is, you get to make the rules, Thor. Got it?"

"Got it!" Tony's heart swelled yet again at the unabashed joy in the answer. "Um, um, know what else I got?"

"What else you got?" Bruce asked in exaggerated curiosity, raising an eyebrow.

"The best dads in the _whoooooooleeee_ world!" They were each given a kiss to go along with the sentiment, and Peter too earning a delighted squeal and baby chatter in response, before their second youngest hurried out of the room with an excited, "I gotta show the others my gift!"

Tony sighed, relieved that had gone so smoothly – even if he wasn't naïve enough to think the future and ignorant reactions would be quite as easy to navigate. But whatever happened, whatever their child decided, he and Bruce would figure out how to be the dads said child needed and they'd do so with each other's help.

Bruce sighed too and looked at Tony. "Let's talk to the other kids after Pepper leaves," he said. Tony nodded. "And we'll need to consider how to handle the extended family."

"One step at a time, Bruce," Tony reminded him. "I think Thor's mind is still a little too blown to care too much about the specifics just yet. We'll figure it out as we go with his," he shrugged his head, " _or_ her _or_ zir help."

Bruce sighed again, a smile touching his lips before he brought them to meet Tony's. "I love you," he whispered into the sweet kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Potential spoilers for the Lady Thor comic arc, but in that series run Jane Foster becomes Thor. While in the comics it's clear they're two separate entities, I decided to play with the Lady Thor concept a little bit in this series by having little Jake (which is already just one of Thor's embodiments in the comics) also want to be Jane.  
> 2\. Since the character is only going on 5, I hope it was clear that this is still just early development and Tony and Bruce are trying to foster a safe environment where Jake, Jane, Thor, etc. can figure things out however their child needs to as an individual. I went with this based on my training with the Montessori theory of early childhood development and how it can be used not only for learning development, but other things such as identity, autonomy, etc.  
> 3\. While I do have/have had genderqueer periods since I naturally skew androgynous, I have thus far been mostly cisgender in my presentation regardless of any internal feelings or random short stints in the past; so if there is anything here that feels clumsy, insensitive or plain wrong because of my inexperience and misunderstanding, _please_ point it out to me so I can fix it and learn.  
>  4\. That said, the transition from Tony and Bruce referring to Jake as Jake and he exclusively to Thor, etc. without any specific pronouns was intentional. Prior to this point, they still considered Jake their son/he because they hadn't broached the topic yet explicitly even if they were trying hard to keep the environment flexible and prepare for this possibility. It's not to say they did it right or wrong :3  
> 5\. Maui as in Moana, Diana as in Wonder Woman. Can anyone spot the obvious connection I was trying to make here?


End file.
